New book claims John F Kennedy released US criminals from prison to curb the Communist threat

Explosive claims seem designed to cause controversy

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President Kennedy on the telephone in White House, Oval Office

Photo by Abbie Rowe, National Park Service

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'Criminals were ideal operatives as they were ruthless and willing to risk their lives during missions rather than be sent back to prison. They also couldn't be officially connected with the CIA so it didn't matter if they were captured - there was no risk of America's shady policies being exposed.

Deane recalled hearing hearing that Riley had hijacked a plane to Cuba in 1962. According to Smooth Criminal on Friday, April 13, 1962, Riley and an accomplice forced pilot Reginald Doan at gunpoint to fly them to Cuba where they planned to defect, only for the Cuban authorities to imprison them before sending them back to Miami.

Deane says he was contacted by Riley and during that meeting he revealed that he was working for the CIA and had been sent to infiltrate Cuba as a spy.

'The skyjacking was just a smokescreen conjured up by the CIA after the mission went wrong. Riley confessed that he'd been recruited by the intelligence agency while in prison for extortion of a public official back in 1960, and had been sent to Cuba to carry out a number of assignments - including one to assassinate Castro.

'He had posed as a waiter at one of Castro's favorite restaurants and been supplied with Botulinum tablets - an untraceable poison - by the CIA to drop into his soup, but Castro must have got wind of the plan as he suddenly stopped eating there.'

Deane admits that at first he thought that Riley was a 'fantasist' and forgot about him. It was only after his retirement from CBS in 2005, when he reportedly started writing Smooth Criminal, that Deane discovered Riley might have been telling the truth about the criminal operatives program all along.

Deane uncovered over 40 newspaper reports of Riley's various crimes in archives and was amazed by his seeming invulnerability to prosecution after tracking down several of his victims.

'Riley was a one-man crime wave who was allowed by the CIA, and indirectly the president, to consistently get away with his crimes in return for his occasional assistance,' Deane said.

'He has left a string of victims across the USA over the last 40 years, but the police and FBI have been powerless to act because he is protected by the CIA. The agency maintains a policy of complete secrecy and doesn't want to risk compromising operations by having one of their operatives involved in a public trial.

Deane says that he has evidence of Riley living in New York in 2005, but after that the scene goes cold. He suspects Riley, who would now be in his 70's, is either dead or has been placed into a Federal Witness Protection scheme to put him out of reach.

Daene concluded: 'America has lots of enemies and security has to be maintained if we are to prevent another 9/11 so I am not against a program that helps protect the nation. What I do object to is the CIA's insistence on complete secrecy. The rationale that a few Americans have to suffer for the sake of 315 million is not acceptable.'
 

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